The present invention is directed to a device for the lateral alignment of flat objects arranged in a flow, for example, the lateral alignment of sheets of corrugated cardboard being introduced into a feeder of a processing machine such as a die-cutter.
Several lateral alignment stations are well known. They operate preferably by aligning the sheets fed to a processing machine by moving one edge of the blank which is provided with registration marks against a stop. The alignment occurs either by pushing or drawing the sheet material. The alignment by pushing the material is used in processing of corrugated cardboard sheets while the alignment by drawing the material is usually used for processing sheets of plain but not too heavy cardboard. Corrugated cardboard can be coated with a printed sheet on one face. This printed sheet is glued onto the corrugations of the corrugated cardboard or onto one face of a double-faced corrugated cardboard sheet. In both cases, a laminated cardboard sheet is obtained. The printing of the laminated cardboard sheet occurs with positioning references for further processing of the sheet. The alignment means are set with regard to these registration marks.
Nevertheless, the existing alignment devices, particularly those pushing the laminated corrugated cardboard sheets, cannot insure sufficient accuracy with high speed processing. For example, the pushing hits the sheet with too much force and causes the sheet to easily lose its correct positioning because of bouncing or movement against the stop. In addition, the alignment member might damage the cardboard sheet. For example, if one ply of the laminated sheet extends past the edges of the other plies, the production becomes worthless because the references will be destroyed.